Rebecca Eleanor Ward was baptised on 11th September 1774 at Old Somerby in Lincolnshire, daughter of Sarah Ward, formerly Lister, and her husband William Ward, a labourer. She was the eldest of the couple's three children, with younger brothers called Thomas and Luke. The family appears to have moved about six miles to the village of Belton some time between 1776 and 1779, then moved about seventeen miles to the east to Great Hale some time between 1779 and 1783.

Rebecca's father died aged 37 and was buried in Great Hale in 1783, when Rebecca was nine years old. In 1786 her mother remarried, with a William Burks becoming Rebecca's stepfather. He died in 1792.

On 31st July 1797, aged 22, Rebecca was married to a labourer named Thomas Hearson at Great Hale. One of the witnesses to the marriage was Rebecca's brother Thomas. No evidence has been found of Rebecca and Thomas Hearson having had any children.

In 1808 Rebecca's mother Sarah married for a third time, to a carpenter named John Allam, who was father-in-law of Rebecca's youngest brother Luke. Sarah died in 1823, aged about 75.

Rebecca and Thomas appear in the 1841 census living at 'Lease' - presumably the road now called Leas Road on the eastern edge of the village.

Rebecca died aged 73, being buried at Great Hale on 13th January 1848. Thomas outlived her by nearly eight years.

This baptism has been linked to the Rebecca Ward who married Thomas Hearson on the basis that one of the witnesses to her marriage was a Thomas Ward with handwriting of the same style as the Thomas Ward who married in the same year at Great Hale. The ages of both Thomas and Rebecca when they died at Great Hale fit with the ages of baptism for the brother and sister who were children of William Ward and Sarah Lister, plus William Ward and Sarah Lister's other son Luke also appears in Great Hale, and there is a burial record which fits William and remarriage and burial records which fit Sarah, suggesting the whole family moved to Great Hale.